On Tue, 29 May 2001, Matthew Yip wrote: > Provided you want to get involved with road racing, I'd encourage you > to start by autocrossing. Unfortunately you've already put yourself > into Street Prepared (b/c of the springs) but the experience of > autocross and the subsequent lessons in car control are invaluable. > At the same time, find your local "marque" club chapters (BMW > especially) and get involved with them. Most of the marque clubs > offer drivers education events at local racetracks - most all clubs > require membership but, at least BMW doesn't require marque > ownership. >
"race" springs and coilovers are still eligible for STS... which would be more competetive than DSP. :) Sometimes the tech inspectors don't know anything, and will stick you in DSP anyways. > The combination of the aforementioned will teach you some of the > basics that you'll need to go racing. The biggest piece of advice is > to leave the ego at home - you'll probably find yourself getting beat > by old guys in "lesser" cars b/c they have skills that you haven't > yet developed. Make a point to be the "wide-eyed kid" who gleans as > much information from these folks as possible - in other words, take > advantage of whatever they'll tell you, even if you think it doesn't > apply to you (yet). > Definitely... if you can get anyone to ride along with you at autocrosses and give you pointers, definitely take advantage of it. Try a couple events... you'll find out how much it takes to be fast out there. I've been a "weekend racer" for almost a year now, and I'm pretty confident with my driving abilities. I'm still far from the fastest though. :) > Lastly, while autocrossing and track events will teach you how to > drive, neither will teach you about road racing. For that, you'll > need to take one or two SCCA approved racing schools (assuming you > want to get involved with SCCA, otherwise NASA offers similar > programs). This is an opportunity to put all the driving skills > together AND combine them with intelligent and controlled agression. > > > The final word of warning - road racing is EXPENSIVE and ADDICTIVE. > Should you find yourself broke and single, don't blame me. > Heh.. you said it. I'm resisting the force right now. I just bought another car to drive every day, so the GTI is going to be recieving a few upgrades that will make it a lot more uncomfortable on the street. :) I think for at least the next year I'm gonna stick to time trials... definitely cheaper for now, and still pretty fun. With a lot of the clubs out there, all you need is a car that won't fall apart and a helmet, and they'll let you out on a real race track. _____________ List Sponsor: http://www.netsville.com To remove yourself from this list, send mail to [email protected] with 'unsubscribe a2_16v' in the body of your message See us on the web at http://www.a2-16v.com Visit the 16V Homepage at http://www.gti16v.org
